Calling all action movie devotees: Heart Of Stone is the latest high-octane thriller to make waves on Netflix, topping the streamer’s charts in a massive 93 countries worldwide.
It’s the story of super-spy Rachel Stone, an apparently unassuming operative who moonlights as a member of hush-hush global espionage network The Charter. When she manages to infiltrate an MI6 group, she must work alongside these new colleagues to prevent a shady hacker from accessing a deadly weapon.
Here’s your guide to the star-studded cast, including where you might have spotted them before…
Gal Gadot as Rachel Stone
Intelligence agent Rachel Stone is the latest leading role for Gal Gadot, who’s best known for her portrayal of Diana Prince, aka Wonder Woman, in two standalone superhero movies for DC.
More recently, she’s appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s screen adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic Death On The Nile (admit it, you can still hear her saying “Enough champagne to fill the Nile” in the trailer) and starred in Netflix action thriller Red Notice alongside Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds.
Jamie Dornan as Parker
Jamie Dornan, who plays Rachel’s MI6 team leader Parker, will need very little introduction to most film and TV fans. He shot to fame playing terrifying serial killer Paul Spector, the nemesis of Gillian Anderson’s detective Stella Gibson, in gripping BBC thriller The Fall, and then landed the role of Christian Grey in the critically derided but commercially successful screen adaptation of E. L. James’ Fifty Shades series.
His recent CV is seriously eclectic, appearing in Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical film Belfast, comedy Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar and BBC thriller The Tourist.
Alia Bhatt as Keya Dhawan
Heart Of Stone marks Bollywood superstar Alia Bhatt’s first ever English-language role; her character Keya is a hacker who is trying to steal the ‘Heart’, the artificial intelligence system used by secret organisation The Charter, of which Gal’s Rachel Stone is a member.
Alia’s breakout role came in the 2012 teen movie Student Of The Year, and she has since gone on to star in films like Raazi, Gully Boy and Udta Punjab.
Sophie Okonedo as Nomad
Oscar-nominated actor Sophie Okonedo appears as Charter agent Nomad, and Heart Of Stone marks the second time she has teamed up with director Tom Harper, having previously appeared in his 2018 film Wild Rose.
You’ll recognise her from her roles in Hotel Rwanda (which earned her that Oscar nod in 2004), The Hollow Crown, Netflix series Ratched and the TV film Mrs Mandela (for which she was nominated for a Bafta TV Award), to name just a few.
Matthias Schweighöfer as Jack Of Hearts
If you’ve recently headed to the cinema to catch Christopher Nolan’s three-hour epic Oppenheimer, you might recognise Matthias Schweighöfer (aka Heart Of Stone’s tech genius Jack Of Hearts) from his brief turn as Werner Heisenberg, the German theoretical physicist. He appears at the start of the film, leading a lecture while J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) is studying in Germany; later, we learn that Heisenberg has been recruited to join German efforts to create an atomic bomb during World War Two.
Matthias has also appeared in movies like The Swimmers, Army Of The Dead and its spin-off Army Of Thieves.
Jing Lusi as Theresa Yang
Jing Lusi, who plays MI6 sharpshooter Yang in Heart Of Stone, has previously appeared in hit romcom Crazy Rich Asians, and is a mainstay of British TV, cropping up in series including Scott & Bailey, Gangs of London and Pure and even voicing a character in Bob The Builder.
Up next is a role in Apple TV+’s spy thriller Argylle, alongside the likes of Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa.
Paul Ready as Max Bailey
British comedy fans will already know and love Paul Ready as Motherland’s token stay-at-home dad, the forever put-upon, permanently stressed out Kevin.
He’s also an acclaimed theatre actor (his most recent appearance on the London stage came in 2019, when he played Macbeth opposite his wife Michelle Terry at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse) and has cropped up in hit series like Bodyguard and The Terror, as well as films including The Dig and The Death Of Stalin.
Heart Of Stone is available to stream on Netflix now.